This invention relates to a method and apparatus for hanging pictures and the like and more particularly to a hanger comprising an elongated member such as a tape narrowed, collapsed or twisted on itself at a central region or a strand, with the ends of the member adapted to adhere to the structure to be mounted. The central portion of this member is made to lie in a region midway between the sides of the structure to be mounted on the wall and is engaged by a hook or a protrusion from the wall to permit hanging.
In the past there have been several methods of mounting pictures to walls involving adhesive members. Most recent of these involves the use of a "double sticky back tape". Depending on the tape used, pictures or posters mounted in this manner eventually either become disengaged from the wall or stick to the wall in such a manner that removal is made extremely difficult without damaging the wall or the picture. It will be appreciated in this type of adhesive mounting structure, that accurate centering is required since adjustment after the structure is mounted is difficult.
Another common adhesive type picture hanging structure is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,647,711 issued to J. M. Margulis on Aug. 4, 1953. In this method an adhesive strip is provided with an eyelet through which a metal hook attached to a further adhesive strip protrudes. The metal eyelet provides structural strength against tearing of the tape when the hole in the tape is slipped over the hook. It will be appreciated that this type of mounting method suffers from the same defect as the first mentioned mounting method in that proper centering and balancing is required when the adhesive strip is placed on the structure to be mounted. Thus no easy means of adjustment is provided once the strip is in place.
In contrast to these two methods of mounting structures on a wall, the subject system involves a member which may be a continuous adhesive tape which is either narrowed or twisted on itself at a central region, or a strand with adhesive means at either end. This member is elongated and is adapted to engage a hook or protrusion on the wall. The elongated portion serves much the same function as the traditional wire used in picture hanging, in that adjustment of the picture on the wall is accomplished by changing the fulcrum by sliding the hook along the elongated portion.
In contrast to conventional wire techniques, no screws or nails need be attached to a picture to support a wire when using the subject adhesive hanger.
Additionally, the manufacture of such a hanging device is extremely simple, since it will be appreciated that there need be no metal parts to complicate the manufacturing process.
Although initially it might seem that a member used in this manner would come off of the structure to be mounted, it has been found that this particular method and apparatus holds heavy structures in place on a wall for considerable lengths of time. Although this particular mounting system was adapted primarily for mounting picture board of light weight nature to a wall, it has been found that due to the availability of strong tear resistant tapes and strands, and extremely adherent adhesives, structures of considerable weight may be mounted in this manner.
It has also been found that such a bow tie structure can be fabricated from molded nylon in a pull-trusion process by which the elongated central portion is as strong as picture wire. In one embodiment, the ends of the bow tie are made porous by aperturing so that adhesive between the bow tie and the picture to be mounted will harden in the apertures to provide a stable mechanical as well as a chemical bond to the nylon. For this purpose a separate tube of adhesive may be provided with the bow ties, if the bow ties do not themselves carry the adhesive. Porous tapes narrowed on themselves in a central region can also be used in place of the nylon bow tie. Moreover, with some adhesives the pull-truded nylon bow tie neew not be apertured. In other embodiments the bonding surface of the nylon bow tie ends may be pretreated as by scoring, roughening or by chemical treatment. Additionally, the pull-truded part need not be made of nylon, but can be made of any suitable pull-truded material.
It will be appreciated that if a flat bow tie-like structure is laid on the back of a picture and adhesive is applied, then the strand portion will lie adjacent the picture backing material making engagement with a picture hook difficult as well as subjecting the hanger to undue stress. Thus in a still further embodiment the strand or flexible member of the hanger intermediate the tab or pad portions is offset from the plane of the pads to permit easy picture mounting.